After Jonathan Bate, in his recent biography of Ted Hughes, wrote about Hughes' salacious sex life, a number of critics – including Janet Malcolm – were quick to pounce.

To Tolkien, the machine represents a means to attain power over others. His orcs – deformed and ugly creatures, whose hands are sometimes replaced with weapons – embody this lust for power.
LOTR WikiaJanuary 6, 2015

My grandfather was a carpenter, and I don’t think he ever developed much of a sense of trust in machines. I remember him laboring away at our home one summer, transforming our screened-in porch into a…

Book reviewers and the editors of periodicals that commission them are used to sour assessments of their worth, but Professor John Dale’s article on The Conversation yesterday is in a class of its own…

What is lost and gained when book reviewers remain faceless?
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, laughingsquid.comJuly 1, 2014

The Saturday Paper publishes anonymous book reviews and, occasionally, reviews by identified critics. That anonymity was a much-discussed feature when the paper launched in March, and the debate continues…